A backing material can be used with a carpet or textile to provide a support, a cushion, a contamination barrier, a moisture barrier, or to simplify installation of the carpet or textile. Backing or support layers often comprise a polyurethane foam. Typically, these polyurethane foams are intermediately positioned within multi-layered backing materials and do not have any exposed external surfaces. Therefore, other textile materials are typically used in the outermost layer of the backing material. However, these textile materials are often not an ideal source for the outermost backing layer of floor coverings that will be exposed to certain external environments, including marine environments or other environments where the floor covering will encounter moisture. In addition, the outermost backing layers of floor coverings cannot typically be embossed in a pattern that is fully effective to disperse moisture away from the floor covering. Further, floor coverings typically have a face layer and multiple backing layers, and this multi-layered configuration can increase the cost of the floor covering.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide methods for producing floor coverings and backing materials with embossed polyurethane foam compositions that are embossed with predetermined patterns for dispersing fluids away from the floor coverings and backing materials. Additionally, there is a need to provide a cost-efficient floor covering comprising a greige good and a cured embossed polyurethane foam backing. Further, there is a need to provide a floor covering having skid-resistant properties in marine environments. These needs and other needs are at least partially satisfied by the present invention.